When we started designing mounts and wall rail for the up.bike system, we really got to thinking; how many bikes does the average cyclist own? The old adage of n+1 means we never truly have enough, but what is the number that holds us over?
Every rider is different, and the reason for adding a bike to the stable can be different. Some of us simply enjoy all kinds of riding, from mountain bikes to road bikes and everything in between. It can also be extremely difficult to let go of our old favorites, even if that Klein Attitude doesn't get taken out very often anymore. Of course, some of us just like having something new each season. As hard as it was always going to be, we set out to create our own formula of how to guess the number of bikes in any cyclist's quiver.
The best place to look was our own garage. Here in Michigan, we tend to have a road bike and a mountain bike, with plenty of folks also having a cyclocross or gravel bike, too. It's also common to have a fat bike around here, plus a bike just for riding around town, running errands, or putting through bad weather rides. We also had to account for other cyclists in the home, with a good average of one bike per additional person in the home. Between spouses and kids, it seemed like a 1:1 ratio worked well.
We also tried to account for 'spare bikes', and to do so we added a fraction of our standardized two bike estimate to account for the presence of either a fat bike or winter bike, as well as a random 'beater' bike.
Operating on these numbers, we found the real formula to be a bit closer to this:
2.75 (one for road, one for mountain, and .5 for people with and without a cyclocross bike and another .25 for a beater) + f (when f equals number of other people in the family), or 2.5 + f.
So for a family of four, we'd estimate that their home has 5.75 bikes; think we're close?
Let us know if our formula works well to determine how many bikes are in your garage, then take a second to explore the Start Up Kits that make your life easier.